


Bloody Minded

by AnonEhouse



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Mutants, Canon Divergence - Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Civil War Team Iron Man, Crossover, Depression, Gen, Implied/Referenced Mind Control, Not Steve Friendly, Not Steve Rogers Friendly, Not Wanda Friendly, Self Confidence Issues, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Hatred, Tony Stark is not a doormat, not SHIELD friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 07:48:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17361932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonEhouse/pseuds/AnonEhouse
Summary: Post Siberia Tony is depressed, and the world needs more protection than he can provide. He finds a collaborator to attempt to recreate Project Rebirth, to make more soldiers after the mold of Captain America.The world needs heroes, and Rogers is the most heroic of all, isn't he?Or is he?Tony's collaborator has never met Rogers. Sometimes an outside opinion can give you an entirely different view of things.





	Bloody Minded

(If you are reading this on any PAY site this is a STOLEN WORK, the author has NOT Given Permission for it to be here. If you're paying to read it, you're being cheated too because you can read it on Archiveofourown for FREE.)

 

After Siberia Tony was tempted to crawl into a bottle and stay there. He was a failure. No matter what he did, he was a worthless excuse for a human being. He could never atone for everything he'd done. He'd partied and drunk and not paid attention to the misuse of the weapons he designed, and hell, designing weapons in itself was horrible, wasn't it? He only fooled himself thinking he was a patriot, like his old man.

Pepper left him, Vision was sneaking out to visit Wanda, Rhodey was fighting to learn how to walk. It was all on him.

Aliens were coming to destroy the Earth.

That was on him, too. If he'd been a better person and hadn't been a braggart and show-off, the team would have listened to him. If he hadn't been emotional and weak, Rogers would have told him about his parents.

If he'd been stronger, he wouldn't have created Ultron out of fear. 

He wouldn't have torn the team apart.

But it didn't matter how worthless he was, Tony was going to do everything he could to protect the Earth. He wasn't a hero, he never was. He had a brain, and he had resources, and he was his father's son. He'd carry on, somehow.

He'd retrieved his ruined suit from Siberia, and meticulously salvaged drops of blood and skin scrapings from the gauntlet where he'd punched Rogers. His father once told him that Carter had thrown away the last blood sample he had of Rogers, so when Barnes stole the recreated serum, it hadn't been perfect. Tony had all his father's notes, and now he had a pure sample, he could fix it.

Could make a new cadre of defenders to make up for the team he'd destroyed.

They would be perfect, of course they would, based on Rogers, how could they fail?

 

Biology wasn't his strongest field. Sure he'd created a new element and saved himself, but that was only because his father left him a message from the past. He wished that Bruce was here. No one had seen him since the Ultron disaster, not since Tony had to use Veronica to fight Hulk. He'd even knocked out one of Hulk's teeth. No wonder Bruce left without telling Tony. He'd failed to keep Bruce safe.

He'd lost... everything...Pepper... he told her she was the one thing he couldn't live without. That was probably an insult. Calling her a thing. Like his father calling him 'his greatest creation'. Howard was drunk when he filmed that, maudlin drunk. Steve Rogers was always his father's greatest creation. The whole world knew that.

He needed help. He could ask Helen Cho... but...after Ultron... it was too much. She'd seen Tony picked up by the neck, a toy in Thor's hand. Whatever respect she had for him would have vanished in that moment.

 

He had Friday sift through recent medical and scientific reviews, looking for someone not only competent, but unaffiliated with the military or any major pharmaceutical company. Finally he found a professor at a private school whose papers were thought-provoking and eminently logical. Best of all, he appeared to be allergic to public life, having turned down numerous invitations to speak at prestigious events. If anyone could keep this out of Ross's hands, it would be a man like Professor McCoy who seemed to only communicate with people remotely.

McCoy replied to Tony's email with gratifying interest to the proposal. Over the next few weeks in between upgrading Rhodey's walking aids and keeping his head down while S.I.'s public relations division scrambled to appease everyone who was rightfully angry over the 'Civil War' as his conflict with Rogers had been popularly mis-named, well, Tony didn't have much else to concentrate on, so he and Friday and McCoy analyzed, and theorized, and went back and forth over the results.

At first they discussed everything via text, but after a while they began using Tony's private version of Skype, hacker-proof and un-interceptable... probably. Tony's system was better than SHIELD's, and Friday kept an eye on it, but his confidence wasn't as great as it used to be. Make enough unforgivable mistakes and it knocks the complacency out of a person. Still, the ability to realtime interact with McCoy was worth it, not just for the project. It was... comforting... to have someone who spoke to him as if his ideas weren't tainted. Someone who believed Tony when he said he wasn't in it for profit and he wasn't going to misuse what Hank... yeah, they'd got to a first name basis... shared with him.

He would have liked to put a face to Hank's voice. Hank sounded like a professor, calm and self-assured, with a deep, mellow voice that undoubtedly carried well in his classroom. Hank had only agreed to Starkype with the vision disabled, and Tony respected his wishes. But it would have been nice to see him. Tony wasn't designed to live as a hermit. On especially self-pitying days, he'd watch a video for virtual hugs. DUM-E and U tried, but let's face it, you need a squishy human body to hug well- also having two arms would help.

 

"Tony," Hank told him one day, "I hate you to get your hopes up. I believe that the reason the serum worked best on Rogers was more due to his genetic makeup than the serum. It seems likely it unlocked potential that simply doesn't exist in most people."

"Huh. Well, can we sort out the required gene sequences and test for it? I'm _this_ close to working out the serum... if we can identify gene carriers we could test it on blood and tissue samples. Maybe...a virtual person... I recall Oscorp had a virtual mouse they used to test formulations for cell regrowth. It's not the same, but it could be..."

Hank interrupted Tony gently, "I'm sorry, Tony. I've... studied this particular gene sequence. It's fairly widespread, yes, but it works in an unpredictable synergistic fashion."

"How can you be sure? It's got to work. Cap was perfect. He was my father's greatest creation. We're going to need men like him, Hank. I... I ruined the Avengers... I need to..." Tony took a deep breath. He wasn't going to push Hank. It wasn't going to be like Ultron, dragging Bruce into Tony's mess. "It's fine. I'll... thank you. I won't take up any more of your time."

"Wait! Tony, you're not going to stop, are you?"

"No. No, I'm not, Hank. Don't worry, I'll keep you out of it."

"It's not... Tony, really, you have to give it up."

"I can't, Hank. We've had aliens attack three times in the last ten years. Each time, it's worse... I saw what's out there. It's nothing ordinary people can fight, and it's coming."

"Wait. Tony. I'll call you back. Don't do anything just yet. I need to confer with an associate, see what he has to say."

"Yeah, all right." Tony ended the call. He needed a drink. Hank was probably just being polite. And even if he meant what he said, anyone he spoke with would convince him that dealing with Tony was a terrible idea.

DUM-E chirped and nudged Tony, offering him a green smoothie. "Yeah. Thanks. Wheatgrass. Just what I needed." Tony drank the sludge. It wasn't alcoholic, but he wasn't going to hurt DUM-E's feelings by turning it down. "I shouldn't have yelled at you, and U," Tony told DUM-E. "It's my fault you're not perfect." He patted DUM-E.

 

Hank did call back a few minutes later. "Tony, I've spoken to the school headmaster, Professor Xavier. He wants to make this a conference call."

"Oh, ok, sure. Same protocols?" Tony braced himself. Probably this Professor Xavier was going to berate Tony for wasting Hank's time.

"No. Enable the camera. You need to see this."

"Oh. All right." Tony set up a split screen, and linked to the account Hank gave him. He had a moment of wishing he'd cleaned up. He looked down at his t-shirt, faded, grease spotted, and scorched in places. Great. And he hadn't shaved in days. Even better. He looked like a bum.

"Tony."

Tony looked up at Hank's voice.

And stared. Hank was wearing a subdued tweed suit, and his eyes were huge behind very professorial black eyeglasses. He was also clothed in shaggy blue fur. Tony blinked. On the other side of the split screen, a very bald, very pale, man with striking blue eyes looked calmly at Tony.

The bald man said, "Mr. Stark?"

Tony blinked again. "Yeah. Hank... how... aren't you hot?" It was inane, but all he could think was that he'd be roasting if he wore tweed over a pelt. "And... blue, that's just...so blue."

Hank smiled. He had fangs, too. "Yes. I am. On both counts."

"Oh. Ok." Tony wondered if DUM-E had slipped something into the smoothie. Of course, a psychotic break was an even more likely explanation. Didn't everyone say...

"Mr. Stark," the bald man said, "While it is true that creative genius is genetically linked to a predisposition for psychosis and bipolar disorder, you may rest assured that this is not a hallucination."

"What?" Tony asked. "Are you..."

"Yes," the bald man said. "I am reading your mind. And I would prefer it if you would think of me as Professor Xavier, or Xavier, or even Charles, rather than 'the bald man'." He smiled. "You don't think of Hank as the 'blue, furry man' do you?"

"No, actually, right now, I'm thinking of Hank as Grover, the lovable, cute and furry muppet." Tony reached out to pat DUM-E without taking his gaze from the Starkype screen. "I used to watch Sesame Street with the kids," he explained.

"Ah," Xavier said. "That program is popular with the youngest of my students," he added politely. 

"And your students are..." Xavier might be able to hide his telepathy, but unless Hank conducted all classes remotely-- not actually impossible...

"Please, Mr. Stark, there's no need to over-analyze. Yes, our students do see us, and are fully aware of who, and what, we are." Xavier steepled his fingers. "We are mutants. As are our students."

Tony tilted his head in puzzlement. "Well, sure, aren't we all? Evolution, you know? I'm guessing Hank's parents were a little fuzzy, and your parents maybe were really good at guessing what people were about to say?"

Professor Xavier smiled. "Generally, species change like that, with almost unnoticeable variations, and each successive generation is statistically likely to increase the numbers of individuals whose genetic makeup results in an increased likelihood of reproduction. Sometimes a mutation confers no particular advantage, or indeed is detrimental, and so it does not tend to increase in the general population." 

Hank put in, musing aloud, "Then again, the genes responsible for the adult ability to digest lactose spread with unprecedented swiftness although scientists have been unable to determine why those gene bearers were so far better fitted to survive and reproduce than others in the same gene pool. After all, simply allowing milk to ferment into cheese made it digestible, and just as nutritious for everyone." 

Tony tried really hard to look interested, but cheese? What the hell?

Xavier took up the conversation when Hank paused. "Genetic changes that result in an externally obviously different individual are usually unviable or at the very least unlikely to increase in numbers, but there is an exception. There is one gene complex, which we have for convenience sake dubbed the 'X-factor'. Of itself, it has no specific effect, however, it does affect other genes." Xavier spread his hands. "It causes dramatic mutation, often mutation far beyond the expected limitations of the human genome."

Tony's mind leaped to the Accords, to the most damning version, the one he'd fought to amend, the one that would have applied to anyone found to have enhanced abilities, whether inborn or technological, whether physical or mental, whether adult or child, whether they used their ability publicly or not. All would have to register and be segregated, given no choice as to training or using their abilities. It would have given the government the legal right to enslave 'for the common good, to ensure public safety'. 

His throat closed up painfully. He'd thought he'd succeeded. The Accords would have given structure, would have given enhanced people who chose to use their abilities both accountability and protection against charges of terrorism that would result if they acted in foreign countries without oversight. And if you didn't want oversight, you could simply _not_ use your abilities. Tony had even been able to convince the commission that enhanced people acting in their own countries should merely abide by the laws of that nation. Captain America could have kept on being Captain _America_ , doing just as he pleased. He could have turned the Avengers into a US only force, recruited whoever he liked. The Avengers had saved the president! That gave them friends in the highest of places!

"Actually, Mr. Stark," Xavier said, still reading Tony's mind, "Iron Man and War Machine saved the president. Neither of you were officially Avengers at that time. The Avengers had nothing to do with that."

"Yes, but... Cap would have..." Tony thought back. "It all happened so fast. I could have called them for help, but I was too arrogant. I thought I could handle it myself."

"Hmm," Xavier said. "So, then Captain Rogers was arrogant when he did not call you to help with the overthrow of SHIELD? With the helicarriers utilizing your technology? With computer data, that you, as one of the foremost creators of computer technology could have unobtrusively sorted so the Hydra agents could have been rounded up without warning, and the SHIELD agents and their families not exposed to the world?"

"Um." Tony tried to think about it. "That's. That's not fair. Cap is a good man. He always acts for the best. I'm sure if he'd been able to trust me, he would have called me."

"Instead, he recruited a man he'd met while jogging, a serendipitous meeting with a fellow soldier, with only the man's unverified word that he wasn't Hydra, or indeed, that he was able to be of use in a battle against Hydra."

Tony was sure there was something wrong with what Xavier said. It was all true, but Cap! "Cap wouldn't make a mistake. He's perfect."

Hank broke his silence to cut in, while shaking his head, "No, he's actually not. Mr. Stark, the reason the serum worked for him is that he carries the X factor. He only gives the appearance of perfection."

"What? That's crazy. He is! He's CAPTAIN AMERICA! My dad..." Tony swallowed hard. "My dad told me about him. He used to go on and on about how great Cap was." _And how I would never be as good as him._

Hank waved a hand. Xavier took over. "And did you believe that? At the time, I mean, before you met Captain Rogers?"

"Well, no. I resented Cap because my dad spent more time looking for him than he ever did looking at me. But that wasn't Cap's fault, I learned better after I met him. Cap's not... whatever you're trying to say he is. He's a good man."

Xavier made a noncommittal noise. "After Hank discovered that Captain Rogers carried the X factor and brought your research to my attention I used my computer, Cerebro, to help me locate Captain Rogers."

"You shouldn't have done that! He's in danger of being arrested! They'd shoot him on sight! Like BUCKY!"

"Actually, he is not. He and his team have been carrying out missions against Hydra, funded by the King of Wakanda. Sergeant Barnes has been living in Wakanda. Rogers is under the impression that Barnes' programming has been removed by the King's sister, Shuri. I fear her estimation of her ability in this area is overly optimistic. Barnes was able to behave normally for more than two years on his own, so the lack of homicidal action when living a bucolic, pastoral life as a goat-herder among people who do not even speak Russian, let alone know his trigger words, is hardly proof that the programming is gone."

Tony was trying not to listen. This was making his head hurt. "I should be helping Steve. He's going to die. They're all going to die. And it's going to be my fault."

"Mr. Stark, why do you believe that?" Xavier asked.

"Because I saw it." Tony closed his eyes. "I can still see it. The Avengers... all dying, Earth under attack. Cap... he told me it was my fault. Why hadn't I done more."

"Mr. Stark. Tony. Open your eyes. See the truth." Xavier's voice was compelling. And it wasn't just coming from the Starkype. He could hear Xavier in his mind.

He opened his eyes. He really opened his eyes. "This... this isn't me. Why do I feel like this? I should be angry, not guilty." He shook his head. "I should be angry that you're messing around in my mind, shouldn't I?"

"A certain amount of self-doubt and guilt is normal, Mr. Stark, but what you've been experiencing is not. It's been imposed on you by an external force."

"Not Wanda!" Tony said quickly. "She's just a kid. Cap trained her, she wouldn't do anything like that."

Hank asked, "Didn't you distance yourself from the Avengers because she was accepted on the team?"

Tony shook his head again. "It wasn't like that. I'm responsible for the deaths of her parents. For making Ultron who killed her brother. It was hard for her to have to see me so I left for the good of the team, but Wanda's a good girl, she wouldn't do anything to my mind. Not once she left Hydra."

Hank rose to his feet. "I'll leave you to discuss this further with Professor Xavier. I should be getting back to my students. Good day, Professor, Mr. Stark." Hank nodded, and switched off his Starkype. 

Xavier's session expanded to the full screen. "You are correct in that Ms. Maximoff has not interfered with your mind since she implanted the vision that's been troubling you. In the normal course of events, it should have faded by now, along with the irrational belief that every ill that befalls anyone you know, anyone who is even tangentially in contact with you, is your fault."

"It's not irrational. Have you seen the videos, read the articles about me? My weapons were misused, sent against the very soldiers I'd intended them to protect!" Tony felt strange, defending his faults, but they're all he had. Without them, what was he?

"Your press conference was famous." Xavier smiled. "At the time, I saw a strong man realizing that his company's procedures were flawed, and taking immediate and drastic action to accept responsibility for ensuring it didn't happen again. The guilt, if there were any, lay in trusting the procedures, which must have been approved by the government. You might have blamed the law for allowing whatever loopholes were used to bypass your company's security and instituted a thorough review to find out where it had failed. It would have been a good business decision. Was it solely guilt that motivated you to take the action you did?"

"No. Not just guilt." Tony scrubbed at his face with both hands. "There will always be war. Always be weapons and someone to make them. But it didn't have to be me. I could be a balance, could turn my company to making products to undercut the need for war. Provide people with reliable sources of the necessities- crops that survive on marginal land, clean drinking water, inexpensive energy-- hell, free mosquito netting could save millions of lives. If every nation could be a 'have' nation, then wouldn't there be less reason to fight? It was a dream. It... hasn't gone as well as I'd hoped."

"It is a good dream, Mr. Stark. What happened to that dream?"

"Well, first I had to take care of my stolen weapons, and then I was sick, and every time I turned around, mistakes from the past were biting me in the ass. I ran out of time, and I had to prioritize. SHIELD needed my help, and then when it fell, I had to take care of the Avengers."

"Why did you have to help SHIELD? How was it your responsibility?"

"Because..." Tony tried to think back. He'd never actually been approved as an Avenger. Just an unpaid consultant. He hadn't minded ruffling General Ross so the man wouldn't try to put the Abomination on the team. That had been crazy. He didn't really think Ross even meant to do it. He thought it had been a threat to use as leverage to get control of Bruce. The Hulk actually cared about Betty Ross and Ross had already tried to use her... wait, how did he go from doing that in order to help Hulk, who had saved Tony's life, to funding and supporting SHIELD? How did that happen? "I don't know. It just... I felt, after the Avengers formed... we were needed. SHIELD was needed. It was the right thing to do. I thought Cap would approve."

"Yes." Xavier said. "Rogers believed in SHIELD."

"Well, sure, they were the good guys. Weren't they?" Then again, SHIELD had developed weapons based on the tesseract. Had not only been riddled with Hydra, but had cheerfully gone along with plans to hold a gun to the world's head, to kill anyone they considered a threat. Didn't he hate it when Fury broke into his home? When Romanov injected him in the _neck_ against his will? When Coulson threatened to taser him- a man with a metal can stuck in his chest- on the basis that without the threat of murder he wouldn't try to cure himself? "Huh," Tony said, confused. "Why didn't I tell SHIELD to fuck off?"

"Rogers believed in SHIELD."

"Yes? And so?"

"He also believed in Ms. Maximoff. He identified with her."

"Yeah, Hill told me about that." Tony frowned. "She said he compared the Maximoff's volunteering to be experimented on by Hydra to Project Rebirth, to him volunteering as a patriot to defend his country. But...Sokovia was in a civil war... a real one... and Hydra wasn't on either side, it was just for itself. That's... that's as if you joined the Mafia during World War Two. That's not patriotism."

"No. It's not. Why did Rogers sympathize with her, then? Why did he take her unsupported word, immediately after she'd been on Ultron's side, that you were not only responsible for Ultron being evil, but that you were deliberately creating another evil android in Vision?"

"Beats me. She's young and pretty and looks pitiful when she cries?" Tony remembered that. He'd been doing his best. He'd been sure he was right. And then... Cap's shield came at his face. If his armor had been the slightest bit slower to reach him, he wouldn't have had to worry about Siberia, it would have ended there. "Cap didn't hesitate. He would have killed me. Did she make him do that?"

Xavier shook his head slowly. "I also investigated her with Cerebro. Her abilities did not come from Loki's staff. If that were the case, then Hydra would have many more successes. They killed everyone they exposed to it, with the exception of the Maximoffs. They too were carriers of the X-factor, and their mutations were unlocked by the power of the staff, shaped by it. She was born with the latent power to affect minds."

"So she did make Cap try to kill me." Tony was relieved. He didn't want to think Steve hated him. Steve was a good man, if he hated Tony, what did that make him?

"No, she didn't. She couldn't. Rogers is immune to mind control." Xavier spoke more slowly now. "Are you ready to hear the truth?"

"What truth?"

"Rogers is a mutant. It enabled him to unlock his body's physical potential with the aid of Project Rebirth, but he had always had a mutant ability. Not latent, not potential, but active and in constant use."

"I don't buy it, I've seen pictures, read his medical record. He was no superman."

"He possessed a more subtle power." Xavier tapped his finger against his forehead. "He doesn't, to this day, know what he does on an instinctive level. His conviction is his power."

"His conviction." Tony blinked. "I know Cap's got a strong sense of what's right."

"He has an absolute conviction that only his beliefs are real, and also possesses the ability to impose those beliefs on others. The closer one is to him, and the longer one is exposed, the stronger the effect. In the short term, it's possible to see reality in his presence, but people like his mother and Barnes? They had no chance. They protected him, fed his ego, assured him that he had nothing to prove, that he was always right, that he was the best of all possible good men.

"He was chosen for Project Rebirth by a doctor who had seen his medical records and knew Rogers was quite possibly a tuberculosis carrier. Why? Why would a man of science ignore the basic facts of the day and endanger the war effort by recruiting a potential disease vector? Because Rogers believed he was a soldier and that he had to, deserved to, join the army and his physical condition had no bearing on the matter."

Tony's head hurt. "I don't believe you. Cap is a GOOD MAN."

"Rogers has no sense of 'other'. The entire world revolves around his beliefs. God is what he imagines. Right is what he believes. Evil is what he defines. A bully is someone who can resist Rogers."

"No," Tony said softly. 

"When you fought him in Siberia," Xavier said softly, "why did you lose? You have blown up tanks, chopped leviathans in half, but two men were impervious to your weapons?"

"Because...I couldn't use my weapons. That... that would have been bullying. Cap could... do it all day." Tony blinked. "He'd told my dad that. The day he met Erskine. He'd been fighting a bully in an alley. That was what he told the man. That's what he told me. He told me I was a bully. And bullies can't win against Captain America. They always lose."

Xavier nodded. "And what did he think of you when you first met?"

"He said... he said he'd seen footage, that he knew men worth ten of me. That I only fight for myself. Make weapons for profit. That I was pretending to be a hero." Tony closed his eyes tightly for a moment. Then he opened them and his expression hardened. "He believed I was worthless, and guilty, and trying, and failing, to atone for... I don't know, not being what he considered a good man."

"Yes." Xavier said. "I am sorry, Mr. Stark. Ms. Maximoff could not change Rogers' mind. No one could whether they used logic, sentiment, or mind control powers. He convinces people, and they follow him. They ignore their homes, and families, and the kingdom they should protect, because he is a good man, and it's only right that he should have their loyalty above all else."

Tony felt sick. "And he believed I should be a fucking doormat. I was never his friend, just something he tolerated because it was useful." It all fell into place. It all made sense. He still wanted to protest that Cap was a good man, he wouldn't have done this, he couldn't have. But Tony had never been one to roll over and beg for attention, for approval. He'd had that urge schooled out of him as a child. Starks are made of iron. He looked up into Xavier's eyes. "Can you break me free of this?"

"Yes. Come to my school. We will need to discuss other things as well. I believe you are correct, that the world is in danger. We need to make plans."

"Yes. I'll be there. Thank you, Charles." Tony nodded. He ended the call and stood up. "One last thing I need to do first." He went over to his desk to pull out a flip phone and a letter. "I don't need this garbage." He dropped them down an incinerator chute before straightening and running his hand over his scraggly beard. Shower, shave, dress, become a human being who has a sense of self-worth. Go to Westchester, save the Earth. Yeah, he could do this. "Take care of the place, DUM-E. Daddy's got work to do."

Tony walked out of the room, head high. They don't make doormats out of steel.

**Author's Note:**

> I can't be bothered to watch Age of Ultron again to verify it, BUT while Wanda gave Steve a vision, I don't feel that was controlling him. 
> 
> He went on to act just as he would if he hadn't seen it, unlike Tony who'd been influenced by his vision. Xavier could read Steve's mind, and if he tried, he could send him a telepathic message, but he can't change anything in Steve's mind- couldn't make him forget, for example.


End file.
